Lists of Stuff

Reading List:
The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. LeGuin
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. LeGuin
Clumsy by Jeffrey Brown [alternate subtitle: TJ's adventures in Orlando]

Movie List:
Day the Earth Stood Still with Keanu Reeves and Jennifer Connelly
Invisible Boy (failed attempt to watch Forbidden Planet )
Yes Man with Jim Carrey and Zooey Deschanel
When Worlds Collide with
Waitress with Keri Russell, Nathan Fillion, Cheryl Hines
White Noise 2: The Light with Nathan Fillion and Kaytee Sackhoff
Outing Riley bunch of people plus Nathan Fillion
The Giant Gila Monster with Don Sullivan

Television List (various episodes of...)
Star Trek: TOS and DS9
3rd Rock from the Sun
Boston Legal (holy wow I like this show)
Mad Men (which Amanda is sending me the dvd's of in..5.4.3....)

And of course....BATTLESTAR GALACTICA FINAL SEASON PREMIER IS TOMORROW!!!
And I'm kind of excited about that.

Oh hi, This is a blog!

A request was put in about a week ago, for a blog post about my winter vacation. Seems I ought to get around to that, eh? First, an excuse: I'm suffering mightily from a sinus infection because someone likes to bathe in cologne. Feel free to send me comforting words and a cup of your best homemade soup. Please act as though I am suffering from some incurable malady more terrible than anything anyone has ever experienced. It'll make me feel better. A little. Ahem. hack cough wheeze die recover

I spent Xmas with The Whitehill's. The turkey was baked golden brown and then brutally devoured, as is right and just. I got a giant book of bird pictures. This book shall be used as a coffee table one day.

I had not planned to travel at all this vacation, but shit happens. Sometimes good shit happens, and I get to fly to Orlando and spend a spectacular New Years with Troy. You can see the pictures I posted already. There was more preparation shopping than I'd like to admit to. Scary shoes and eye catching dresses were purchased. Besides a couple very nice nights out, and a trip to the Kennedy Space Center, we mostly watched alot of television. There was the Nathan Fillion mini-marathon that became a short lived Kaytee Sackhoff mini-marathon. She was fun and purple-haired in White Noise 2 and we watched about 20 minutes of some terrible...horrible...well it was boring and then Troy got to see side-boob and then it was boring again. We watched alot of Star Trek, of course. I sat in on a meeting of the local SF club.

Well we did other stuff, but you would be bored with the details, I'm sure. Suffice to say, I had a really really great fun relaxing geeky time.

And then I came back to TXass on a plane, sitting behind a small bouncy child who threw her wet whipe at me. So I threw it back, and her daddy can just stick his damn eyes back in his head because I'm not sorry. That's just nasty.

So I've been sick, but I've still managed to visit the gym at the YMCA every day since I got back, and ran around getting tuition and books paid for, and helped Janae shop for some nice new work clothes, and read some more. Janae, Juan, and I watched a very strange movie about pot and ate fajitas and played Speed Scrabble last night.

All in all, I had a delightfully unproductive break.

X-Files *spoilers*

Positive:
Mulder and Scully together without angst. Thank you.

Confusion:
Have they been living together for awhile, or just since she went out to find him? If the former, then why is she ribbing him for being so trusting and not noticing she's in the house, and only just now complaining about the scratchy beard? If it is the latter, then its awful odd how she's referring to them having a home together. Why do two people who love each other and sleep together still call each other by their last names when they no longer have a professional relationship? We are fans of X-Files, we would know who Dana and Fox are.

Interesting:
When Mulder is trying to make a call, we see a closeup of his screen as he selects Gillian. Accidental or intentional?

Negative:
Hey, remember that show, X-Files, where all that supernatural and extraterrestrial stuff is investigated? Well this isn't that. We get one guy who "has visions." We, the audience, don't get to peek into those visions, and they are completely unreliable and mostly useless. Instead, this is a movie about trying to touch on as many "current events" topics as possible: Stem cells, gay marriage, and pedophile priests.

But then they didn't really talk about any of the issues, except the safe one that few will disagree with: pedophile priests are evil nasty people. Then they go to the old standby "evil medical scientists with accents do horrible experiments." They even tried, I think, to imply "horrific" sex-change operations, since the gay-married head transplant guy was only being attached to women's bodies. Of course, that might be because movies don't get made about missing, abducted men, that would be dumb because those men would obviously be able to take care of themselves and get away, duh.

On top of all that, the movie was dull, slow, lacking energy. The same conversations were re-hashed at least three times per character...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz... all of these plots would have been 10x better.

Movie Reviews

We saw The Happening last week. It was enjoyable, with appropriate amounts of gore and "holy shit no way!" moments. It was bad, but that's because I think it was supposed to be corny bad. The male lead acted, or not, I'm not sure. It would have been scarier without the "suspense music," although Amanda still jumped. Hehehehe. The premise was intriguing, but towards the end I was trying not to yell at the screen, because it was absurd.

I shall summarize Wanted, with spoilers:
Wes has boring cubicle life, unaware that he is meant for greater things (sound familiar?).
"Saved" and recruited into secret society by beautiful woman.
Wes becomes sexy killing machine after being beat the shit out of in creative ways.
Predictable spoiler ---->>>"LukeWesley, I am your father."
Wes destroys corrupt organization.

Amanda didn't like the part with the rats, I may be partially responsible for that.

I'm going with Mom to see Horton Hears a Who at the $2 theater today.

Vacation News

Sorry for not keeping you up to date on my lively vacation.

We left Killeen at about 2pm on Thursday, and arrived in St. Joe at about 2am. Good times. The weather and traffic were good until we hit soupy fog leaving Atchison.

I got Amanda hooked on Battlestar (Victory is Mine!). Also, mixing spiced rum with mango wine coolers does not result in a "Bahama Mama" experience. Mostly just getting sick. Sorry 'bout that.

We had turkey and sage stuffing and pumpkin pie at Mom's a few days before xmas. That was the good part. Um. Yeah. Gotta love family. Mostly.

The weather has been crap. So, I've spent most of my vacation watching movies, eating stew and potato soup (mmmm) and drinking a bit. We glutted on dark chocolate brownies and Irish Coffee last night.

Here are the movies so far, all of which are good, most of which I've seen before.

BSG Miniseries (plus episodes 1-3, but I was to woozey to watch the screen for 4-8)
National Treasure: Book of Secrets
Bourne Ultimatum (at Mom's)
28 Days (check out my huge package!) (I am never going to get laid)
28 Days Later
Waitress (I'd like a Nathan Fillian pie, please)
X-Men 1 (one word...Wolverine)
X-Men 3 (say it again)
Batman Beyond (the guy who plays Scarecrow was in 28 Days Later)

Children of Men

Blood Diamond

I think there was more, but my memory is a bit foggy...

Tentative plans are for bowling tonight, if the weather holds and any of my friends have checked their facebook email....Rebecca.... We're leaving MO on sunday around noon, forecast says no snow. Figures.

Movie Review: I Am Legend *spoiler*

Overall, I liked the movie. It felt like something was missing, but I'm not sure what, so that's not a very good criticism. Ha.

It had lots of tension, lots of emotional impact, lots of weird screaming vampire-zombies. Will Smith's character once again manages to be The Perfect Man. He hunts, farms, traps zombies, military officer, genius scientist, loves his dog as an extension of his dead wife and daughter. Somehow the dog had to be revealed as a girl (Sam is Samantha), as she was dying and becoming a zombie/vampire dog, in order to drive that point home.

Of course, I couldn't be fully emotionally "in the scene" at that point because of the crying 8 year old behind me. "He's dreaming, right? Its just a dream? Why did the puppy have to diiieee??!?!?!" I was tempted to turn around and tell her the truth: the doggie died because your parents are too stupid to read ratings, it is all their fault the doggie is dead."

Meet the Joneses

Our Simpsons Movie Avatars. Okay, so I'm not that skinny, and he's not that muscled, but those were the best of 4 options, so there. It was fun.
Feet got cut off...wtf? I'm not fixing it.

Knocked Up (no Mom, its just a movie)

A Longish Review of Knocked Up, but maybe because I read all 106 comments...
A Smaller Review of Knocked Up, which we saw this weekend, which I thouroughly enjoyed, and which you really must see.

Caution: Both reviews contain Spoilers.

this film contains one of the most brilliantly subversive commentaries on misogynistic language I’ve ever seen. During the movie, the word “vagina” is (notably) used by guys as an insult. And then during the delivery—KAPOW! You get not one but three (IIRC) shots of the baby crowning. And all I could think was: “Awesome! Could there be a better commentary on how fucking stupid it is to use ‘vagina’ as an insult to convey weakness?!” Superb.

Evil Gymnastics Girls

They were selling baked goods outside the Hastings, and I spotted chocolate brownies. Contemplating the brownies, I spotted an identical container with chocolate frosting. Gymnastics Mommie said it was chocolate cake. I gave them all the cash in my pocket for a small chocolate cake. I carried it around the Hastings for 20 minutes while Michael tried to pick out a movie I didn't want to see. The anticipation was killing me.

Finally! Finally I get home and grab a plastic fork and opened my much-coveted chocolate cake. I dug the plastic fork through the chocolaty frosting and into the cake. The non-chocolate cake.

Evil Gymnastics Girls and their Lying Mommies, may they never eat chocolate again.

Bellyaching

It was a very long weekend. I feel like I walked a marathon. First it was a jaunt through the Caverns of Sonora, finally. It was hot, humid, and beautiful. Lots of pictures.

Then we drove the rest of the way to San Antonio, found the hotel, waited for housekeeping to finish with the room even though it was over an hour after check-in. Then drove out to the Palladium to catch 300 on IMAX. I wish we could have seen it the first time on IMAX, it was so good. Also, the Palladium has a couple bars, a restaurant, and that Italian ice cream. The name escapes me at the moment. Anyway the theater is huge, and its really the coolest thing ever. Until I think of something else.

Dinner at SushiZushi was good. We over-ate big time. You wouldn't believe how much we miss the taste of a good California or Rainbow Roll. Michael's Yakisoba wasn't right, and the Cajun Roll wasn't very good either. Hot green tea did well to settle my tummy from the hot dog I picked up at the theater. Yes, all that good food and I had a hot dog that gave me indigestion for the rest of the night. Go figure.

Oh, and then this morning we headed over to the Botanical Gardens to take lots of pictures of pretty flowers. Oh look, pretty flower! I need 5 pictures of it! It's a compulsion. I'll try to post them, but I'm too tired to crop and sharpen too many today, so here's a selection.





Afterwards, we drove around downtown like crazy people trying to find a place to park so we could walk around like crazy people trying to find the mall so we could walk around like starving people and be picky about what restaurant to eat at because we hadn't had anything but very good hotel coffee all day. Whew. It was not fun. We ate nothing good and bought nothing interesting except bottles of Japanese melon soda. We like it, it is not baby drink. So there.

So I still feel all sick from the heavy meal I had today, even though I didn't have anything else. I've had 5 Maalox tablets. Mmm Lemony-Goodness. Still doesn't help though. Oh well.

After we got home today I went to buy an anniversary present for my hubby. I got him a few things. And then I got him something from me to him back to me, which is completely innocent. However, I left it for him in his bathroom, and he has failed to notice it yet. Since he already left for his game, he probably won't notice it until the morning. Oh well. I still have the real gifts stashed away.

Let Me Eat Cake

I'm sure you're all sick of hearing from me. Bla-bla-frickitey-blog. Oh well, I'm sure you will learn to cope.

The Summer/Fall course schedule dropped Friday, but it wasn't supposed to until tomorrow, so I didn't realize until I randomly logged in. I think I just spent 2 hours deciding on my schedule. I fear it will be drastically changed upon academic advising. Oh well, at least I feel like I've accomplished something tonight.

Did I tell you about the bat? There was a bat.

I made Tiramisu last night, and had it for dessert today.
PKW is on. To sleep or not to sleep? I need to meet with my Cal1 teacher tomorrow at 10am. But the moooviieeee!!!! We have it on dvd anyway, why am I watching this with commercials?? I'm going to snack on another piece of Tiramisu and then go to bed. For Real. Goodnight.

Currently watching : Farscape - The Peacekeeper Wars Release date: By 18 January, 2005

Sure Can Smell the Rain

First, you must go watch 300 now. Go! I'll wait...

Okay. Awesome, right? Yup, me too, I loved it. I mean, damn. Every movie that has such excessive boobage should also include a minimum of 300 gleaming muscular men wearing nothing but capes and those underwear pants. King Leonidis also has very interesting teeth.

I'm still trying to remember the name of the very strange SF book I read many years ago, in which modern historians and scientists end up traveling back in time and helping the Spartans win at Thermopylae. It was strange.

Besides seeing the movie and the weather being great, Saturday kinda sucked. Michael's buddies threw him a little party because he's moving to another office. We played Trivial Pursuit Pop Culture. It dragged on forever. We quit. Un-fun. The thick juicy burgers I bought, burnt to charcoal by the grillmaster. I survived for 5 hours on ruffles and ranch dip before getting said coal-burger.

Today I made myself an egg-ina-hole for breakfast at noon. Drove over to the yardsale location and hung out for a few hours. Made $40. I have some paperwork to do tonight or I won't be able to quit my job. Also, a shadowbox for someone else in my shop. Glue gun + TJ = burn, so that should be fun. BSG is on tonight, I can't forget to watch that.

I'm hungry.

End.

Lazy, with random thoughts

I have 3 bookshelves in my car that I need to bring up and put together tonight. Well, put together at least one tonight. But all I really want to do is consume warm/hot food items. I also need to pee and take some Advil for my sore arm. Damn pushups. Damn it all.

Hey, see my countdown up there? See how low it is? See that wonderful number??!!?? Yeah, its that good.

So, to make my tummy happy, I ate a microwave Panini. Then an apple heated in the toaster oven with brown sugar. Then some hot cocoa.

The Forgotten just came on FX. Is that the movie with the stuff ripping up into the air? I think so.

I have the Hiccups again

So, its 1am and I am NOT tired at all. I think I had 3 or 4 cups of coffee at IHOP about an hour ago. I'm gonna try to sleep anyway, but we'll see how that works out.

Anywhoo, we saw The Holiday tonight. It is, by far, the best movie I've seen lately. Not to say that The Fountain wasn't good, but this one made me laugh out loud, literally. That doesn't happen much.

Ohhh! Also I've noticed alot of the books I loved as a kid are being made into movies: Charlottes' Web, Bridge to Tarabithia, and How to Eat Fried Worms. We saw the preview for Bridge to Tarabithia tonight, and I'm really excited. I remember that was the first book that I cried at, or maybe it was Where the Red Fern Grows. Serious growing-up books. I read up to 10 books a week in the 6th grade, walking back and forth from the tiny public library. Because read well above my grade level I was exposed to certain mature subjects. I think it was really important in shaping me emotionally at that time, that my reading wasn't censored at all. I really regret that I havn't been able to read much in the last few years. I doubt I've read 10 books in the last year. I don't really forsee having any time to read soon either.

In response to Chloe:

Is Goonies the one with the big dog? I dunno, I'm a complete outcast on 'classic' movies like that.

I've had volunteer work that made me feel bad, especially visiting old people, especially vets, especially during the holidays. But some makes me feel good, like tutoring kids, which is weird, because I despise other people's offspring.

I hate dogs. Destructive disgusting beasts.
Also hate cats. Evil disgusting beasts.

When I eventually live a settled life, I want to get an African Gray Parrot.

I was at a public bathroom an hour ago that smelled like maybe the sanitary napkin trash hadn't been taken out. Rotten un-ladylike odor...

I've only eaten (i originally typed eated) Thai food twice, because even the 'not spicy' food burns my tongue off.

Random, completely unrelated information:
I didn't eat any lunch today, but I did take a lunch break.
My arms hurt.
I have 3 homework assignments due on Monday, and 2 due on Tuesday.
Today is Sci-Fi Friday.
Micheal and I are looking for an apartment to move into in December.
Ants. Fucking Ants.
There are no curry restaurants in San Angelo.
Scratch- There are no good restaurants in San Angelo.

The Link Collector

I took most of the week off to study for finals. I've felt like crap all weekend. I had a little wine on Saturday, which probably didn't help things. I felt better for a few hours though. I might make an appointment tomorrow. Maybe. Probably not. Oddly, right now is the best I've felt in a few weeks. I know I'm not better, but its still pretty good.

We saw two movies on Saturday too. Talladega Nights, and Descent. I had low hopes for Talladega Nights, and high hopes for Descent. I was pleasantly entertained, for the most part, on TN. Descent was disappointing. Predictable: I knew who had to survive, who would die, from the first 10 minutes. Over-gory: not that I'm opposed, but gory doesn't make a movie good. Also, most of the screen was black/dark for most of the movie.

Next time I'm going to watch the first 20 minutes of a movie, and then write what I think will happen, and have everyone confirm it when its over.

Yet another reason to avoid cats
So they can't infect you with the cat-loving brain disease.
(You like cats? So do I! We should trade recipes some time!)

Legalized Extortion
Some people need to be destroyed.

How to totally fake being a geek
In which I find a blurred reflection of myself.

Slither? Eh, no.

Robert (an uber-fan of my glorious blogs) was asking if I have, or will be, watching the new movie Slither. I try to stay away from just those sorts of films. Which one was it where the bloody things spewed out of people's butts? I swear people were crap-birthing these nasty aliens. Something about dream catchers I think. Michael remembers. Only this Slither thing looks like it really wants to be a B-Movie.

I'm still hanging out in Florida for a couple more months. I can't wait to get back to the hubby in TX. Ugh! I can't believe I want to go back to Texass.

I should really be asleep about now, in preparation for a long day walking around the Kennedy Space Center tomorrow. I'm kinda excited again, we'll see. I've spent my entire day today reading Absolution Gap, and I've only got...lets see...87 pages to go. It's been ages since it has taken me this long to read a book. I started it in January I think. I guess its just a point of pride for me to finish it before I go to bed tonight. I used to read entire 800 page novels in a day, often starting at 8am and finishing at 4am....which in my reckoning is a day since its less than 24 hours, so piss off :P

I am sitting rather awkwardly with my legs crossed and my laptop on my lap. Where else? Anyway my left foot is asleep, and I'm dreading the period of waking-up that follows. TTYL.


OK, there goes the foot....OWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

Slither

Robert (an uber-fan of my glorious blogs) was asking if I have, or will be, watching the new movie Slither. I try to stay away from just those sorts of films. Which one was it where people were crap-birthing these nasty aliens? Something about dreamcatchers I think. Michael remembers. I think my favorite Browncoat is in it, but still...

I'm still hanging out in Florida for a couple more months. I can't wait to get back to the hubby in TX. Ugh! I can't believe I want to go back to Texass.

I should really be asleep about now, in preperation for a long day walking around the Kennedy Space Center tomorrow. I'm kinda excited again, we'll see. I've spent my entire day today reading Absolution Gap, and I've only got...lets see...87 pages to go. It's been ages since it has taken me this long to read a book. I started it in January I think. I guess its just a point of pride for me to finish it before I go to bed tonight. I used to read entire 800 page novels in a day, often starting at 8am and finishing at 4am....which in my reckoning is a day since its less than 24 hours, so piss off :P

I am sitting rather awkwardly with my legs crossed and my laptop on my lap. Where else? Anyway my left foot is asleep, and I'm dreading the period of waking-up that follows.

OK, there goes the foot....OWWWWWWWWWW

After that, I read this:
"I said-" Orca Cruz began.
He crunched his fingers down on the eye, shattering it. Something crome-yellow emerged in smoky wisps. A moment later Cruz felt the nerve agent infiltrate her lungs.
No one had to tell her it would be fatal.

Dude, guy gouged out his own eye and it was full of nerve agent.